Various therapeutic devices have been developed for rehabilitating individuals with physical injuries or other problems. Such devices are often designed for treating a certain type of injury and thus focus on a particular area of a patient's body. U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,742, for instance, discloses a rocking device for stretching or relaxing a person's back muscles. A person engages the device with their feet, hips and hands and then rocks, oscillates or rotates his body to stretch or relax the back muscles. Since the feet, hips and hands all engage elements that are restrained or attached at a generally fixed location relative to each other, there is limited relative movement of those body parts as the person uses the device.
Other exercise devices, such as the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,496,248 to Batscher, permit much greater freedom of movement. The Batscher device, however, appears to be meant for individuals that are sufficiently coordinated and are in relatively good physical condition. Many of the elderly or other people who have difficulty supporting their own weight while exercising might have trouble using the Batscher device.
To reduce the load of a person's body weight, many patients prefer exercising in water. Although this can be effective, swimming pools are often quite expensive, they are not always readily available, and they are typically not portable.
Other therapeutic or relaxation devices require an electrical power source, and such electrical power might not always be readily available. Moreover, electrically powered devices might force users into certain movements without the users having to exert any useful energy of their own.
Consequently there is need for a portable therapeutic system that can exercise or stimulate a person's whole body by producing and enhancing a gentle rebound reaction that can have a wave like reaction throughout the user's body.